There is a specific type of person who, somewhere between the starter and the main, will explain what a bandeja is to someone who did not ask.
That person plays padel.
You have probably noticed this. It does not matter what the original topic was. Brexit, house prices, someone's recent job change — within three conversational turns, the padel player has linked it back to their Tuesday evening match.
"It's like when you're at the net and you read the lob too late. You just have to deal with it."
Nobody asked for the analogy, but there it is.
The other thing padel players do is look at their phone a suspicious amount. They are not being rude. They are checking whether anyone has responded to the group booking they sent out twelve minutes ago for Saturday at 9am. Time is short. Courts go fast.
Then there is the injury report. Every padel player carries a minor complaint — a shoulder, a knee, a wrist that "went a bit funny" three weeks ago and has not quite come right. This will be mentioned, briefly, before being dismissed as fine, and then mentioned again later in slightly more detail.
None of this is a criticism. It is, if anything, a form of passion that most hobbies cannot produce.
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